When I first started this blog back in 2019, a big reason for doing so was that one of my upcoming uni assignments involved creating and keeping up with a blog. I had of course been writing stories my whole life and although I had shared some with people I knew, I’d never really pursued any online presence. As a child and teenager I thought of my hobby as a way to make it big in the world – and although I’m hesitant to admit, a tiny part of me still wants to make that happen – but after I got older it became something much more comfortable. Writing stories is a way to both get my thoughts and ideas onto paper as well as to find some respite from daily life. It served me well through many bouts of depression and although my life is pretty much running a steady course these days, the comfort has remained. So I am as surprised as anyone else that I managed to keep this website running for seven years now. Despite many irregularities in the schedule and some small hiatuses, I’m rather pleased with how well it’s gone. Views are up by a lot this year and I am still not out of new ideas for new series. And today, let’s take some time to look back on the things I’ve done so far and the things I plan to do in the future. As the title of the blog suggests, I’m far from done with writing stories after a..

And let’s begin with just that: Stories.
The main focus of my writing has always been to write stories that I would like to read. Characters that I would find interesting and worlds that you can get lost in. I’ve posted several stories to this blog, many of them quite short and meant to build up something before starting something bigger, only to then be abandoned. But out of all of these stories, a few have stuck around. The big one is of course my Hesitant Hero series. I intended this series to only be a short detour as I gave myself a break from what was my main story for a long time. But it ended up sticking around. I’ve started to care a lot about this world and these characters, which also makes it quite difficult for me to accept how messy I’ve made some parts of the story. As I’ve mentioned on this blog before, I am rewriting a lot of the earlier stuff for an eventual final version. The core of the story will not change much, as I am definitely pleased with the core narrative I’ve presented, but there is a ton of character building, world building and just generally tidying up of the story to be done. Now that we are five volumes in, things are ramping up in the story and soon we’ll even go deep into the Feral Wildlands, the unexplored region that has been looming over the story so far. But there are still some things to be resolved. With that all in mind, I have some very optimistic plans for the publishing schedule of this series for the near future that I will not yet share. But expect big things in 2027.
On the side of this story, I’ve also been working very hard on continuing the world building for The Necromancer’s Daughter and I’m very excited about this. I might even be sharing some of that progress with you all next year. Not in the form of weekly chapters or anything like that, but more in the form of worldbuilding and presenting some of the early story arcs. The world has several thought out continents, a working pantheon and even cultures and history for individual countries on the continent the main story takes place on. I’m incredibly happy with how a lot of it turned out and I hope you will enjoy what I have to offer in the future.

Of course, some of you might not be here for my stories at all, but instead for all of the other content you can find on this wonderful website. It’s been fun going through manga volumes – especially One Piece – and dissecting them for you and myself. I’ve also thoroughly enjoyed recapping single episodes from Tensura, Bleach, Made in Abyss and other series. You might have seen it already, but I’ll be doing the same for JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure which is currently airing. The recap of episode 3 should drop tomorrow but the first two episodes are already up. What I’ve enjoyed most in all of this is the chance to take shows I love and spend some time looking at them through a more critical lens. It’s allowed me to see what makes a show good (or bad) and what tropes and story elements work well for certain genres. Which brings me to the announcement in this post I’m most excited about.

I am planning a new series of posts for 2027. Why only then? Because these posts will take a lot more effort on my end to make work. I’m calling this series “Genre Unraveled”. Each month, we will take a look together at a genre of anime and manga (think Isekai, urban fantasy, romance, drama etc.) and look at different entries into the genre. What makes them good? Which things can we take away from this and how can we apply this knowledge to our own storytelling. This series is going to have one new post each month, with the final entry into the series being a culmination of all the research we’ll do throughout the year. I can’t wait. Alongside both the weekly episode recaps and this new series, I am still planning to write a weekly anime/manga post on Mondays. Due to how much I’m putting on my plate, this is probably going to be a bit more irregular than it has been in the past, but I hope you all don’t mind.

Finally, allow me to speak a little bit of life itself. I have not been posting a lot about mental health this past year and that is for a good reason. My mental health has actually been very stable this past year. Claps all around. My physical health isn’t great at the moment though. Because I’ve been doing well, I’ve also taken a lot of work onto my plate and this is taking its toll. I’m still in the final phases of getting my teaching degree – I’m on the way to uni as I’m typing this – and the finality of these deadlines is definitely a little bit scary. You can only teach without a degree for 4 years in a row and that deadline is in June of next year. Luckily there isn’t much work left to do, so it should all be manageable. Work has been going wonderfully, even with an extra class to teach this year I’ve not felt too overwhelmed, although I do get tired in the afternoon. The main issue right now that is causing me headaches and stress is my mom’s health. My mom is in her mid sixties and has always had a weak constitution. Lately she’s been catching diseases and illnesses left and right. Something’s off about her heart, her intestines need operating on and she has an infection in her esophagus. I’ve been spending time at her place helping her out, but doing that at the end of a long work day just amplifies the exhaustion I’m already feeling. Luckily, it doesn’t seem like any of her problems are life threatening or permanent, so hopefully in a few weeks or months, things will stabilize a bit. That’s part of the reason why I’m leaving all of my bigger plans for this blog to next year. This year I will focus on finishing up my uni degree, helping out my mom and getting accustomed to working more hours. This means less posts in the coming months, but that is already normal for this time of year, considering that The Hesitant Hero volume 5 is about to come to an end.

I’ve been talking for way too long already, so let me end this post with a final practical bit of information. My intent is to be more consistent in the time of day I upload posts. I’ve never paid much attention to this in the past, but a Youtuber I watch always schedules his uploads for 5 pm sharp and I’ve been noticing just how nice that is. So I will be doing the same. Blog posts will go up at 5 pm CEST (CET starting in late October) so you’ll have some more consistency. To all of you who have been here from the start or started reading my posts only recently, it means a lot to me to see people come back again and again. So thank you. Thanks for reading. I say it every time, but I mean it. People reading my stories is all I ever wanted out of this hobby. And to have it happen every week is a blessing.